Capital Sports

HELENA AREA FISHING REPORT 6/18/26

🎣Canyon Ferry 🌊
Fishing on the south end continues to perform. The shallower bite has slowed down, but there are still walleye being caught on crankbaits in the 6’ to 8’ range. Perch patterns will produce fish, but the brighter colors with the murky/stained water will get more attention. Fire tiger or firetail patterns are my staple bright cranks. With the fish sliding out to the deeper water, bottom bouncers are going to become the primary presentation of choice. Still the usual suspects, orange, chartreuse and fire tiger patterns on the worm harness are going to be the picks. I have had luck before on black/gold, as well as blue. I would start looking in the 15’ of water and work deeper each pass until you find the walleye. Staying under 1.0mph when using bottom bouncers has given me my best results.

Jigging Mid Lake for the walleye is slow. Granted, the biggest walleye we have caught so far was Mid Lake, but it was a long day for only a couple fish. The better action was still south from White Earth. Chartreuse and pearl seemed to be the preferred color, but a few other fish were caught on minnow/goby color patterns. Target the deeper shelves as this is where the fish prefer to hangout.

The trout from Mid Lake to the dam were very willing to bite. Weird bite windows though. When they were on they would bite anything and everything, but once that window ended you couldn’t pay for a fish. So it is one of those things that the more time you can spend on the water the better the chances. Overall the rainbows were responding best to a hot steel or crazy steel color pattern, but fire tiger or chartreuse and pearl patterns were getting their attention, too. If trolling cranks, 2.0mph to 2.5mph is a good speed range. If you want to try cowbells then aim for the 1.5mph range. The surprising thing was how high in the lake the trout were when I was fishing. They seemed to range as shallow as 10’ and bottomed out at 20’ for the most part. That being said, the deeper fish seemed more willing than the shallow fish and they fought HARD!

Inflow took a dive down to 2800cfs, but the lake is relatively healthy and holding at 87.5%

🛶Hauser🌲
Below Canyon Ferry Dam has remained slow for walleye and mediocre for the trout. Zonkers still work, but a worm under a bobber, or on the bottom is your best bet. If possible I would head down to Spokane Bay before starting to fish. If you want to troll, my go-to is a black/gold crankbait, but a rainbow or brown trout pattern can be very effective. I normally don’t troll into the bay very far. Stay outside of it and down towards Lakeside and just go back and forth at 2.0mph to 2.5mph. Otherwise, heading down towards White and Black Sandy and trolling from there to the dam can be very effective this time of year. Same colors and speed. Down in that stretch a perch pattern can produce, too.

Walleye are showing up fairly regularly in the stretch from York Bridge to Hauser Dam. Best luck I have had is off the w**d edges or good rock structure. Mainly using a jig with a perch, sungill or smelt color pattern. When possible an 1/8oz jig head is my preferred weight, but usually with the wind I am using a 1/4oz jig head. The hard part with fishing this zone is all the pike. To mitigate the loss of my tackle I usually tie on a 12lb+ fluorocarbon leader. It minimally affects my walleye fishing while still giving me a chance to keep my jig and maybe catch a pike.

Speaking of pike, they are more active! More willing to chase our baits and they were a bit more willing to bite, but they are still being finicky. That being said, I happened to look down the lake at one point and noticed a line of about four other boats all on the w**d edge. So I guess the cat is out of the bag now. With the extra pressure those pike will get a bit weary. Be ready with various baits as it can be a mystery what they are biting on for any given day. Spinner baits in black and orange or black and gold canwork well. Silver, gold or perch pattern husky jerks are some of my favorite baits. The other thing to try is a small glide or swimbait. Fire tiger, rainbow trout and perch are my favorites, but a bright white or bone color on the right day can be good too.

The causeway is still holding walleye throughout the arm. There is still a good chance to catch one from shore by the bridge. Bobber and a leech is the classic go-to, but I still like fishing a chartreuse and green or pumpkin and orange ribbon tail on a 1/4oz jig head.

🌄Holter🦅
Gates is still fishing good, mainly in the deep water. If you are targeting walleye, the canyon mouth is a good place to start. Drop shot is the stand-by with perch patterns or a white split tail or drip minnow is a safe place to start. However, using a pinched crawler on a jig head slowly drug by the bottom is proving very effective. Some other hot spots to look into is Willow Creek and Cottonwood Creek Bays. The perch tend to set up in these areas as well. I have heard of some action by the clay banks on the lower section as well.

Trout are biting decently in the Land of the Giants. Still same baits as last week. Streamers for fly fisherman and zonkers if you are casting. Brown and yellow or black and green are safe colors to try. Trolling through the canyon can yield results, but most of the action is in the lower portion. From Split Rock to Holter Dam will yield fish. Snap weights with a dodger and a squid is the bait of choice. The trick is to shorten the leader on the squid down to somewhere between 12” to 18”. Let the dodger whip the squid around and give it some good action. Tip it with some scented corn and you’re in business. I prefer chartreuse, pink or a purple squid. Wedding rings are also a good choice. Troll anywhere from 1.0mph to 2.0mph. If targeting trout, favor the faster side and for kokanee keep it on the slower side. Depth range to target is 25’ to 35’

Kokanee have been being caught! Few and far between, but some folks have found some fortune. They are spread throughout the lake so there is no real hot spot I have heard of, but as long as you are between Split Rock and the Dam you have a chance.

🌅Lake Helena🎣
Unfortunately, the w**d growth has grown to a point where trolling is not possible. With temps also coming in this week and holding the lake will most likely get too warm for the walleye to remain in the lake.

💧Regulating Reservoir⛵
Unfortunately, I have not been talking to many folks fishing on the Regulating Reservoir. Typically trolling a wedding ring behind the kayak in the deeper part of the reservoir is the effective strategy. Troll your bait somewhere between 25’ and 35’ around 1.2mph. Chartreuse, orange or pink are the standard colors here. If you want to mix it up a little a chartreuse and black can be deadly. If you have a fish finder and can locate the schools I prefer vertical jigging with a small pink or silver Swedish pimple tipped with scented corn.

🌊Missouri River(Toston Dam to Canyon Ferry)🛶
This stretch is a bit of a hidden gem. If the crude floating down river isn’t too bad to gum up your line and baits, the walleye fishing can be incredible. In fact, I have already been getting some good reports from the York Islands down to the Townsend bridge. Smaller plastics jigged in slower moving water or pools is the recommended tactic. Perch, white or pumpkin colors are where I would start. Usually a 1/4 oz jig head is necessary to get the bait to the bottom. The other baits to try are zonkers or a bucktail jig. There are some brown trout in that stretch as long as the water stays cool enough, but the walleye are plenty happy with a slow flow of 2700cfs. Not healthy for the river system, but the walleye at least won’t have to work as hard against the current.

🌊Missouri River (Holter to Great Falls)🛥
Flows are still very slow and low at 4,000cfs. Driving over the different bridges it was apparent that the w**d growth is coming in strong, but there are plenty of good pockets to fish. PMD hatches are still occurring as well as Caddis on the right days. We should be approaching Purple Haze season soon if it hasn’t started already. Emerger and spinner patterns are proving to be quite effective, as well. In the deeper pockets without w**ds nymphs are still a good bug to throw. Small prince nymphs and hares ear are the classics, but if you need a fast drop purple tungsten drops are an excellent choice.

Remember this is a free weekend for anglers for Father’s day. So enjoy and good luck out there!
-Jonathan

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